Climate Lobbying Overview: ConocoPhillips demonstrates negative engagement on climate policies, despite positive top-line communication on climate action. The company advocates for increased production of oil and gas and appears unsupportive of ambitious energy transition pathways. ConocoPhillips also retains a network of memberships to industry associations that actively oppose climate policy.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: ConocoPhillips has acknowledged the IPCC science on climate change and appears to be broadly supportive of global-level climate targets. The company has stated support for limiting global temperature increase to well below 2 degree Celsius and supports the Paris Agreement.

However, ConocoPhillips has continually maintained an unsupportive stance on the need for climate policies. The company’s website, when accessed in March 2023, advocated for market-based climate policies along with several conditions that could significantly weaken the scope and ambition of climate regulations. ConocoPhillips recommends that climate policy should provide long-term investment certainty, avoid “overlapping or duplicating” existing programs, and avoid “undue harm” to the economy. Further, in the company’s 2022 Quarter 2 Lobbying Disclosure filing to the US federal government, the company revealed that it had advocated for a carbon pricing regime proposed under the Baker Schulz Carbon Dividends Plan– a plan that uses carbon pricing to oppose all other forms of climate policies.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: ConocoPhillips shows broadly negative engagement on climate-related regulations, with limited transparent engagement. In the 2021 Sustainability Report, published in June 2022, ConocoPhillips stated that a federal carbon tax “should replace all environmental laws and regulations that are intended to reduce or control carbon and other GHG emissions.” It also issued numerous caveats, such as the need for a carbon tax to be “non-discriminatory,” for example, by restricting subsidies to specific energy sources. In its 2021 CDP response, the company listed its opposition to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. On the website, when accessed in March 2023, ConocoPhillips states that federal regulation of methane for oil and gas sector in the US should preserve states’ “ability to adapt implementation to local conditions”. Further, ConocoPhillips states in this webpage that its position is aligned with American Petroleum Institute's (API) position on methane regulation. Evidence of API's direct engagement on methane regulation shows that API has opposed US EPA's 2022 Methane Regulation and 2023 Supplemental Methane Proposal.

ConocoPhillips does not appear to fully support methane regulations. In its 2021 CDP Climate Change Response, ConocoPhillips disclosed support for methane regulations for oil and gas under the US Clean Air Act. However, in December 2021, on its corporate website, the company supported weaker federal methane regulations in the US, emphasizing voluntary efforts instead.

Positioning on Energy Transition: ConocoPhillips appears unsupportive of the transition to a clean energy mix and advocates for increased role for oil and gas in the energy mix– in stark contrast to IPCC guidance that recommends for substantial reduction in fossil fuel consumption in line with the 1.5 degree Celsius goal.

Several instances of direct engagement show the company pushing for fossil fuel expansion. ConocoPhillips’ 2022 Quarter 4 LDA filing in US disclosed the company’s advocacy in support of new oil and gas lease sales in US federal lands. Further, in August 2022, the company submitted a letter to the US Bureau of Land Management advocating for the approval of the Willow Project in Alaska. In this letter, ConocoPhillips stated that the US and the world needs oil and gas under even the “most optimistic” scenarios, claiming that oil production from this project can contribute to “an orderly energy transition”.

Beyond the US, ConocoPhillips pushes for pro-fossil fuel policies in Australia, Canada, and the EU. For instance, in Australia, the company’s submission to the Department of Industry Science and Resources in July 2022, advocated for the removal of moratoria and development barriers to encourage fossil gas development. In Canada, the company’s January 2023 registration at the Federal Lobbying Registry reveal attempts to advocate for oil and gas, citing the need for market access and energy security. ConocoPhillips’ 2021 CDP Climate Change Response disclosed that the company would oppose the EU Taxonomy for Sustainability if it excluded fossil gas.

The company’s public communications frequently promote fossil fuels. In March 2023, ConocoPhillips CEO, Ryan Lance, claimed at the CERAWeek conference that fossil gas is“more than just a bridge fuel” and that gas would be “around for a long time”, as reported by Inside Climate News. In the same month, Lance also advocated for the permitting reform in the US that would enable quicker approval process for energy infrastructure in the US, including fossil fuel infrastructure, as reported by Reuters. ConocoPhillips has an advocacy website called 'Power in Cooperation' which promotes additional investment into oil and gas infrastructure and increased use of gas, stating these strategies would be “good for the environment.”

There is some evidence regarding ConocoPhillips’ engagement on specific measures for decarbonization. In Q1 and Q2 LDA lobbying reports in 2022, the company stated that it had advocated for expanded carbon capture, utilization and storage credits in the Build Back Better Act, without specifying how CCUS will fit into the transition to a net-zero emission economy. The company has also disclosed that it engaged with Canadian policymakers on CCUS implementation without specifying its positions.

Industry Association Governance: ConocoPhillips discloses a list of its industry associations without specifying the climate position of each group and how the company’s own positions align with theirs. It is a member of multiple powerful industry associations that actively oppose climate regulation, such as the American Petroleum Institute, Western States Petroleum Association, US Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Natural Gas Supply Association, National Association of Manufacturers, and International Oil & Gas Producers Association, and Business Roundtable.

On its Association Engagement page, ConocoPhillips reviewed its alignment with eight industry association. However, as of March 2023, ConocoPhillips no longer states the trade associations' public positions on climate policy in this page.

A detailed assessment of the company's corporate review on climate policy engagement can be found on InfluenceMap's CA100+ Investor Hub here.

InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information, see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q1 2023.